On his Way to Normal

The reviews poured out hastily Wednesday, the day after the fall release of Ben Fold's latest studio solo album, Way to Normal. The reviews have been weak and scant, judging hastily without drawing interesting conclusions, except from fan sites, often more meaty but with acknowledged blinders. Paste magazine continues to pique my interest (as you may have noticed, I have been linking to them more and more of late) by charting the progress of the album. In fact, the have one of the more concrete reviews of the album as of yesterday. The Drowned in Sound review seems to be a bit tangential, but surmises the current temperament of critiques at the moment it seems.

The real indicator of this album will be how these new tunes work live. The album recording of "Free Coffee," complete with the synth and Altoid cans, just doesn't do it for me in comparison with the Bonnaroo video (sad, but true). I suppose our first taste will come tonight as he performs the new duo tune, "You Don't KNow Me," with Regina Spektor on Conan. However, the primal oddity in this "Primal Smirk" phase of Folds' career is the leaking business associated with the album, in that he leaked it himself and had scheduled studio time intentionally lay down the rough tracks (here for the Rolling Stone interview). The marketing campaign, the tour, art and heavy web site updates is uncharacteristically aggressive, but fan sites are eating it up. The trend may be clever than we realize, in which Folds is taking a form-reflecting-content move, using the rock star status and lifestyle he acerbically central on the album and putting it on display resulting in an full-package of performance entertainment.

I know this posting has been a bit link-happy, but a few more for good measure since the fan community is particualrly vibrant this week:
- Official Site: definitely check out the Ben Folds channel, which is straight-up ridiculous.
- Official Fan Site: named for a Monthy Python reference, the fees are minimal if you want a leg-up for tickets. Also, the fan boards are pretty helpful and extensive.
- Fan Site: definitely one of the better sites, kept consistently current, user-friendly and again, strong discussion boards.
- Videos: what would we do without YouTube. The "Tiny Dancer" video is great for Elton John fans (hi mom!).

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Update 2 October 2008: Performance was solid but lacked a little umph from Spektor's shakiness and the lack of the Baldwin. However, the pure genius of the performance was the trombonist, in which everything bad imaginable occurs, especially when the camera is pointed straight at him. Suggestions: watch it once and just watch Folds and Spektor, then watch it a second time and watch nothing but the trombone. Oh, and don't forget to note the marching snare that walks on stage mid-tune and stands in the absolute middle to block out the rest of the section. Good times, I promise you.